Tennessee announced Weinke’s addition to the staff Wednesday. His contract runs through Jan. 31, 2020, and pays him $355,000 annually.

Weinke quarterbacked Florida State’s 1999 national championship team and won the Heisman Trophy in 2000.

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He spent the 2017 season with new Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt at Alabama while helping the Crimson Tide win a national title. Weinke was an offensive analyst, while Pruitt was defensive coordinator.

”He has a great eye for talent and knows the game on the offensive side of the ball as well as anybody I’ve been around,” Pruitt said in a statement. ”He will be a great fit for our Tennessee program.”

Weinke played with the Carolina Panthers from 2001-06 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2007. He was the Los Angeles Rams’ quarterback coach from 2015-16 and spent five years as program director at IMG Academy.

Weinke replaces Robert Gillespie, who coached Tennessee’s running backs the last five seasons on former coach Butch Jones’ staff. Gillespie was initially expected to continue in that role on Pruitt’s staff before the two sides parted ways.

Athletic director Phillip Fulmer said last week Gillespie was no longer part of the staff and added that ”it was simply a matter of Coach Pruitt doing what he thought was right for his program and Robert.”

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More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Nobody saw this coming, not even the Kansas City Royals.

Whit Merrifield has gone from an afterthought to the American League stolen base champion. He has gone from more than 2,500 at-bats in the minors to the Kansas City starting second baseman.

He began last year with Triple-A Omaha, his eighth straight season to open in the minors. He finished it hitting .288 with 19 home runs, 32 doubles, 78 RBIs and a league-leading 34 stolen bases.

“The most impressive thing to me about Whit Merrifield is his work ethic and how he has gone from just being an organizational player to a very, very solid major league player,” Royals manager Ned Yost said Wednesday. “I don’t think anybody three years ago would have projected Whit to be the player he is today.

“Everybody thought he’d be a nice utility player in Double-A, a nice utility player in Triple-A. I’m not sure anybody could project him to be anything more than just maybe a utility player at the big-league level. Maybe. And he’s worked so hard and developed himself into much, much more than that.”

Merrifield, 29, was a 2010 ninth-round pick after helping lead South Carolina to the College World Series title. He was never considered a prospect.

“My path to where I am, I think it gives some guys a little bit of hope that don’t have the prospect’s headlines or people really haven’t taken notice to what they can do,” Merrifield said. “You get your shot, take advantage of it; you can play at this level.”

“It’s pretty cool,” Merrifield said. “I didn’t really know that it was close. I wanted to get to 30 and someone told me, how does it feel to be tied for the lead in the American League? I had no idea. So I tried to revamp it a little bit and be a little more aggressive on the basepaths. I ran a little more than I should have. I ran in situations I probably shouldn’t have. I wanted to win that title and it worked out.”

He became the fifth Royals player, and the first since Johnny Damon in 2000, to lead the AL in stolen bases. The others were Amos Otis (1971), Fred Patek (1977) and Willie Wilson (1979).

While Alcides Escobar is back at shortstop, Merrifield will have to adjust to new corner infielders. He said chemistry needs to develop between the first baseman and second baseman as they learn each other’s range.

“I’ve played with the guys that are competing at first, so I have a little chemistry with them,” Merrifield said. “Other than that, it’s just about catching a ground ball and throwing it to first. So I think I’ll be fine.”

Maybe not that simple. First baseman Eric Hosmer, a four-time Gold Glove winner, signed with the San Diego Padres. Hosmer saved his infielders a plethora of throwing errors over the years with his ability to scoop the low throws and use his 6-foot-4 height to reach the high tosses, so throws to first base will have to be more precise this season.

“Hoz is one of the best first basemen in all of baseball,” Merrifield said. “There’s a lot of room to miss with him. It’s a luxury not everybody has. I think we kind of got a little spoiled with it. Whoever is going to play first base for us, we have some good first basemen with some good talent, but there is only one Eric Hosmer over there playing first, so we might not have as much room to miss as before.”

– You cannot go to work thinking Josh Allen from Wyoming, who completes 56% of his throws in that conference, is number one. So here is going to be my mock draft, first time ever. Number one is going to be Sam Darnold.

Even the Browns can’t screw this up. He’s thick. He’s trunky.

He’s smart. He lives for football. He’s passionate.

He’s big. He’s got the arm. He’s a playmaker.

He completes over 60% of his throws in a legitimate conference. He’s been in big games. He’s better in the fourth quarter than first. Even they can’t screw this up. Cleveland takes Sam Darnold.

Number two, the New York Giants take Josh Rosen. Don’t screw around. Pat Shurmur, the new coach, is an offensive genius.

You give him Josh Rosen, let him sit behind Eli for a year or ship Eli out of town. You have got the guy that can go toe to toe with Carson Wentz 20 times in the next decade. He’s a smart coastal kid. New York City will eat him up. And you give him Shurmur, they’re going to be conjoined at the hip for a decade and win a ton of football games.

Number three, the Colts– they could go in different directions. I think they take Ezekiel Elliot with maturity– Saquon Barkley, Penn State running back. Remarkable talent, smart, tough, fast, elusive, can block, can catch– he is Ezekiel Elliot, but a grown up.

No problems, world class kid– and don’t you owe Andrew Luck a backfield mate after what you’ve put him through? You could go get a defensive end. You owe Andrew Luck a guy that can carry it 21 times, and Andrew Luck doesn’t have to throw it 34 times. He can throw it 26. You owe him that.

Number four, Cleveland– Cleveland is going to take maybe the best player– I mean, the safest player to take in this draft, Minkah Fitzpatrick, a safety for Alabama. He’s all world. You’re going to have Sam Darnold leading your offense and Fitzpatrick leading your defense.

This kid’s for real. He has no bust potential. He really is a special player. He’ll be your defensive captain within a year.

Number five, Denver already acquires Kirk Cousins. So they’re not going to get a quarterback. What they’re going to do because they have good defensive personnel, they’re going to help Kirk Cousins because Kirk Cousins has shown in Washington he’s a better quarterback with Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson, a playmaker on the outside. And they’ll draft Calvin Ridley, a wide receiver from Alabama. Now they could go to the offensive line, and I think that would be a good pick too. But I think they’re going to give Kirk Cousins a star playmaker at wide receiver in Calvin Ridley.

Jets have six. Jets would like to take a quarterback, but in windy New York, you can’t go with Baker Mayfield. They’re going to draft their Lawrence Taylor.

Bradley Chub is a defensive end, ironically also from the state of North Carolina like Lawrence Taylor. Listen, they cannot roll the dice on a 5’11 kid from Oklahoma who played football in a pillow fight conference. They’re going to go get their LT, Bradley Chubb, tremendous pass rusher from North Carolina State.

Tampa Bay’s got a lot of good players. They have an atrocious offensive line. It’s the only part of Tampa I don’t like. They have addressed their receivers.

They’ve addressed their defensive line. They’ve addressed their secondary. They could use a running back, but Barkley is the only kid that you can draft in the top 10 picks.

I think they go out and get Quentin Nelson, a guard from Notre Dame, who is many believe the Zack Martin of the draft. Notre Dame had a very good offensive line this year. This kid is the best of three really good NFL players on that line.

Tampa Bay’s offensive line is one of the worst three or four in the league. Jameis Winston has protection. It helps him and assists the running game.

Number eight is Chicago, a dark horse team to make the playoffs next year. I love Chicago’s running backs and I like their O line and they have a pass rusher. I also think they have decent corners.

Now they have an offensive minded coach in Mitch Trubisky. They get him the closest thing to Percy Harvin the NFL has seen. Christian Kirk, wide receiver, Texas A&M– Trubisky, they lost Alshon Jeffery.

Trubisky’s got his backs. This is a very underrated offensive line. They get Christian Kirk.

I know it’s two receivers in the top 10. I call them icing. They fit both these situations.

San Francisco 49ers went heavy on defense. This year, they’ll go heavy on offense with the exception of the first pick. They will go get Ohio State’s Denzel Ward at corner.

They also drafted last year a corner from Colorado. He’s promising. San Francisco has a very good front seven.

They are below average at corner. Kyle Shanahan, an offensive coach, elevates offensive personnel by his very DNA. They will, keep your eye on San Francisco in free agency, maybe make an upgrade on the offensive line and the number two receiver spot, number three receiver spot. So San Francisco is going to go offense mostly in free agency in the draft, but I think they’ll not be able to pass up in elite corner Denzel.

And finally, I have Oakland taking a player that virtually none of you watched– Marcus Davenport, a defensive end. Everybody thinks Gruden loves offensive, but their O line is pretty good. Derek Carr’s good. They’ve got a star wide receiver and they have Khalil Mack.

What Oakland needs to do is get people off the field. They’ve got to get the ball back to Derek Carr and that offensive line and Jon Gruden. And the way to do it is to draft a pass rushing specialist.

So Gruden will go defense with his first pick. And there you have my mock draft. So can we archive that? There it is, my mock draft.

BROSSARD, Quebec (AP) Montreal goalie Carey Price missed practice Wednesday as the Canadiens‘ medical staff checked him out a day after he was struck on the mask by a shot in Philadelphia.

Coach Claude Julien said Price didn’t suffer a concussion, but more would be known about his condition after tests are taken.

It is uncertain whether he’ll play Thursday night when the New York Rangers visit the Bell Centre. The Canadiens recalled goalie Charlie Lindgren, along with defenseman Noah Juulsen, from the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League.

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”It has to do with the puck he got hit in the mask with, but that’s all we know now,” Julien said about Price, who was struck by a short from Shayne Gostibehere in the second period of a 3-2 overtime loss.

Price appeared shaken up by the shot. He was checked out by a trainer on the ice but stayed in the game. While he allowed his first goal of the night shortly after, he had a solid game in stopping 30 of 33 shots.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) The Arizona Diamondbacks sent infielder Brandon Drury to the New York Yankees and received outfielder Steven Souza Jr. from the Tampa Bay Rays in a three-team trade Tuesday that included five players plus two to be named later.

The deal was announced one day after former Diamondbacks slugger J.D. Martinez agreed to a $110 million, five-year contract with Boston, pending a physical. Arizona has moved quickly to fill that hole in the outfield, signing speedy Jarrod Dyson to a $7.5 million, two-year contract on Monday before trading for Souza.

Souza will be the starter at one corner outfield position, with Dyson subbing at all three spots.

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Drury gives the Yankees a new option at third base or second base, where New York was projected to start a pair of rookies.

Top pitching prospect Anthony Banda goes from Arizona to the Rays, who also get minor league second baseman Nick Solak from the Yankees and two players to be named from the Diamondbacks. Minor league right-hander Taylor Widener moves from New York to Arizona.

Drury played mostly second base for Arizona but came up through the minors as a third baseman and could fill that spot for the Yankees, who have top prospect Gleyber Torres penciled in at second. Another prospect, Miguel Andujar, was a leading candidate at third.

New York traded All-Star second baseman Starlin Castro to Miami this offseason in the blockbuster deal for slugger Giancarlo Stanton. Chase Headley was sent to San Diego in a cost-cutting swap, and fellow third baseman Todd Frazier signed with the crosstown Mets as a free agent.

The 25-year-old Drury also has experience in the corner outfield spots, but the Yankees are well stocked there.

Souza helps fill a power void in Arizona’s outfield created by Martinez’s departure. Martinez had 29 home runs and 65 RBIs in 62 games with Arizona last season after being acquired from Detroit, but the Diamondbacks knew it was a long shot they’d be able to afford to retain him.

Drury hit .267 with 13 home runs and 63 RBIs in 135 games for Arizona last season. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designated outfielder Jabari Blash for assignment.

Souza, 28, batted .239 with a career-high 30 home runs and 78 RBIs last year. He had a .351 on-base percentage and .810 OPS.

Drury was the odd man out in a crowded middle infield for Arizona. Chris Owings or Ketel Marte could shift to second from shortstop, where Nick Ahmed also is back from injury. Daniel Descalso can play all the infield positions, plus the outfield.

Drury came to Arizona from Atlanta as part of the Justin Upton trade in 2013 and worked his way up through the Diamondbacks’ minor league system. He isn’t eligible for arbitration until next year.

Banda, 24, made his major league debut last season, going 2-3 with a 5.96 ERA in eight appearances, four starts. The left-hander was 8-7 with a 5.39 ERA in 22 starts for Triple-A Reno last year.

The 23-year-old Solak split last season between Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton, batting .297 with 12 homers and 53 RBIs.

Widener, 23, will be a non-roster invitee to Diamondbacks spring training. He was 7-8 with a 3.39 ERA in 21 starts for Class A Tampa last season and advanced to Double-A Trenton, where he was 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two relief appearances. He threw the final five innings of a no-hitter against Binghamton on Sept. 8.

The club acquired right wing Tobias Rieder and goaltender Scott Wedgewood from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for goaltender Darcy Kuemper, Kings Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake announced on Wednesday.

Rieder and Wedgewood are expected to be in Los Angeles in time for tomorrow morning’s game day skate at 10 a.m.

“We continue to look for opportunities to improve our team speed and Tobias will bring that dynamic to our club,” said Blake. “We appreciate Darcy Kuemper’s contributions this season as he has played very well for us in his role.”

Longtime ESPN broadcaster Mike Patrick is ending his tenure with the sports media company, according to an official report from ESPN.

Patrick began his play-by-play role with ESPN back in 1982 and closed out his run by calling Iowa State’s 21-20 victory over Memphis in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Patrick was a part of the team to broadcast ESPN’s Sunday Night Football from 1987 to 2005 and was the voice of ESPN’s Women’s Final Four coverage from 1996 to 2009. Patrick also called more than 30 ACC basketball championships over his run.

“It’s wonderful to reflect on how I’ve done exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” Patrick said.

“At the same time, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some of the very best people I’ve ever known, both on the air and behind the scenes. While I’m not sure exactly what’s next for me, I’m looking forward to continuing my journey with new life experiences.”